Google announced the launch of the AdWords Local Plus box. When you conduct some local searches, the sponsored listings may contain a plus sign, which you can click and expand into a map. We have reported tests of this feature months ago, but now it is live. Here are screen captures:

Here is a picture of the AdWords plus sign closed:

Here is a picture of the AdWords plus sign open:

Advertisers will not be charged for clicking on the plus sign; they will only be charged for clicks on the link that takes the searcher to the advertiser’s destination.

How do you get your ads to show up like this? If you are already a local business advertiser with Google, then you won’t have to do anything. The only requirement is that the ad be in the top yellow ad position. Ads on the right side of the page will not contain the plus sign.

Google is currently rolling this out to AdWords accounts in the US, Canada, UK, and Germany.

I wonder how soon we will see the Google Products Plus Sign on Google AdWords ads?

Related Topics: Google: AdWords | Google: Maps & Local

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz